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Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Saraswati River comes back to life after 4,000 years in India

Haryana government's efforts to trace the origin of the
mythical Saraswati river bore fruit on Tuesday when water started
gushing out from a pit, which was being dug under the lost river revival
plan.

As many as 80 people who were digging the course
of the Saraswati in Mugalwali village of Yamunanagar district suddenly
noticed that the soil they were shovelling out from a pit was moist. The
dampness increased as they dug deeper and water started gushing out
when they burrowed to a depth of eight feet.

"It was
around 1 pm when Khalil Ahmed, Salma, Pradeep and Praveen Kumar were
digging up a pit. A stream came out when it was dug up to 8 feet and the
quantity of water increased as they went deeper," secretary of local
panchayat Balkar Singh said. The water was also found in four other
pits, which were being dug in a line. The news spread like wildfire and
people thronged the village in large numbers.

Yamunanagar Deputy
Commissioner S.S. Phulia who along with Haryana Assembly Speaker Kanwar
Pal Gurjar had launched the excavation work rushed to the spot. He
tasted the water and then joined the people who have been digging the
course of the dead river for the past 15 days. Work on Saraswati river
project was launched on April 21.

The government believes
that the lost river originates from Adi Badri area and flows through 41
villages in the Yamunanagar district. Excavation work has been started
in eight villages for which Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has made
budgetary provisions worth `50 crore.

A
huge check dam, measuring 400 acres, has also been proposed on the Somb
river that will be diverted to the Saraswati river. The mythical
Saraswati river, according to the historians, had dried up 4,000 years
ago. Satellite images had mapped its course that once flowed through
North-Western India. Remote sensing experts had said that the river
vanished after a powerful earthquake hit its course.

Traces
of Saraswati river are found in the holy city of Kurukshetra. It is
believed that the river once flowed through Thanesar, the capital of
erstwhile Harshvardhan's kingdom, which is located close to Kurukshetra.
Legend has it that the Saraswati once fed two wells known as
Kapalmochan and Ranmochan in which the Pandavas had taken bath.

If revived, Saraswati may boost the state's religious tourism besides quenching the thirst of villages located on its course.